Litigation

US real estate firm Savills has failed to summarily dismiss a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment, which a judge said if true "indicated a culture of discriminatory sexist behaviour of a serious kind".

A former client of law firm Chamberlains, which is facing a costs order in a building dispute, relinquished privilege in his communications to his solicitors because they were made in furtherance of fraud, a court has found.

The owner of Sydney's InterContinental Hotel has lost its challenge to the approval for a mixed-use tower at the site of the neighbouring Sir Stamford Hotel.

Developer Urbex has launched proceedings seeking the return of a $2.85 million deposit on a $59 million contract to buy a development site in Melbourne's east, saying it validly terminated the agreement after an adverse contamination and geotechnical report.

An entity associated with lender Keyview Investment Management wants to strike out a claim brought by the liquidators of defunct developer FSM Development, which has brought proceedings against a raft of defendants, including law firm Mallesons. 

United Cinemas has secured interim relief blocking its landlord from terminating its lease at the Craigieburn Central cinema in Victoria.

Inpex says damages against AkzoNobel could increase "very significantly" if the court adopts its position on a referee's report and it succeeds on liability in its suit over allegedly defective anti-corrosive coating used on the $45 billion Ichthys gas project.

Former Keystone Asset Management director and developer Paul Chiodo is accused of raising more than $1.5 million from unwitting investors for a purported property fund that was secretly used to cover his legal fees in ASIC's enforcement action.

Seymour Whyte has failed to recover millions in asbestos remediation costs from insurer Liberty, with an appeals court finding the costs related to the presence of asbestos at the site of a Melbourne road project and not its release.

The High Court has agreed on an early November hearing date in a dispute over Bass Strait hydrocarbon royalties, despite a plea to the heavens by counsel for Esso and Woodside.